WKYC Channel 3 cuts forecaster A.J. Colby

Weekend and noon weather forecaster A.J. Colby was told Wednesday afternoon that WKYC Channel 3 is letting him go. His last day on the air for the Gannett-owned Cleveland station will be Sunday, May 29.

Colby got the news right after finishing the noon newscast. He said news director Rita Andolsen told him "this was one of the hardest things she ever had to do in this business."

Reached Friday for comment, Andolsen said, "That's a personnel matter that I'm not at liberty to discuss."

Colby started at Channel 3 as a freelance contributor in January 2005. He was brought on full-time in 2007.

"Rita told me it had nothing to do with my performance," Colby said. "They've been very nice to me, and I was grateful they gave me that amount of time to look for something else. She said they were just going in a different direction. I don't know what the different direction is, but I apparently didn't fit into it."

Viewers in Northeast Ohio first saw Colby doing fill-in assignments for WJW Channel 8 in 1994. He became the weather forecaster at WICU Channel 12 in Erie, Pa., in 1997, moving back to Channel 8 in April 2000.

Let go by Channel 8 in 2003, he worked briefly at WEWS Channel 5 before beginning his association with Channel 3.

"I'm not ruling out staying in television, but the industry has changed so much," said Colby, who grew up near Ashtabula, in Kingsville. "I'll move if necessary, but this is my hometown and this is where I hoped to make my home."

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